Club House

Reasons for Designation

This purpose-built amateur boathouse of 1869, extended in 1883 by James Stevenson of Berwick, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural: an attractive and largely intact club boathouse displaying the characteristic features of boat store, club house, balcony and viewing tower
* Historical: as a good example of one of the many small public boat clubs established in England in the second half of the C19 as rowing emerged as a sport.
* Rarity: a rare example of a small purpose-built boathouse for a competitive team.

Details

622/0/10118 BANK HILL 20-AUG-10 BERWICK (Off) CLUB HOUSE

II

Also Known As: BOAT HOUSE, BANK HILL, BERWICK Amateur Rowing Club Boathouse, 1869, extended 1883 by James Stevenson of Berwick.

PLAN: rectangular, with jetty on north-west side.

MATERIALS: stone east wall; overlapping timber boards; replacement metal roof covering.

EXTERIOR: situated on the Berwick side of the River Tweed, this boathouse is raised off the ground by a series of timber piles. The ground floor is plain with several small square windows and a door, reached by a set of timber steps, in the west side. The north side has large wooden double doors giving access to the landing stage. The first floor has a corner viewing tower with a pyramidal roof surmounted by a decorative weather vane. A gabled entrance through the west side of the building gives access to an external timber viewing balcony, with a balustrade of diagonal crosses, which occupies the north and west sides of the building. A stone jetty is attached to the west end of the boathouse.

INTERIOR: the ground floor boat store comprises an open space with timber boat hangers attached to both long sides and a slatted wooden floor. A simple ladder stair in the south-west corner gives access to the first-floor club house. The original southern half of the latter has been partially partitioned to provide ladies' facilities; the northern half remains open with an inserted bar at the south-west corner.

HISTORY: rowing as a sport developed in England, with the River Thames seeing races going back well into the C18 and the first regatta held in 1775. Organised amateur boat racing has its origins in the first quarter of the C19 at Eton College where groups of students rowed for recreation with occasional races along the River Thames. This spread to Westminster School and Oxford and Cambridge Universities by 1820. The appeal of rowing as an amateur sport beyond school and college led to the formation of boat clubs in London including the Leander Club in 1818. The predominant activity of such clubs tended to be social, and dinners and picnics were a regular part of club events at which women were also welcome. Regattas proliferated during the 1830s, the most famous of which was the Henley Royal Regatta first held in 1839. With this upsurge of interest in rowing came the development of better boats and equipment, and the first major advance in rowing technology came from boatyards on the River Tyne in the 1840s and 50s. Indeed between the 1840s and 1870s the Tyne rowers were pre-eminent in their sport and the Tyne was regarded by the rowing world as a beacon of athleticism, innovation and technical excellence. By now boat racing was established in the public eye in England with the Henley Regatta and the Oxford-Cambridge boat race attracting hundreds of thousands of spectators. In addition to these set piece events however, numerous small public boat clubs were established in England throughout the second half of the C19 where men from all walks of life, rather than those attending large educational institutions, could partake in the emerging sport and hold their own local regattas.

The Berwick Amateur Rowing Club was formed early in 1869 in order to promote the sport of rowing in a gentlemanly and friendly manner. A number of gentlemen enrolled in the new club and a boathouse was constructed in the same year on the Berwick side of the River Tweed. Rowing boats for the club's use were built on the River Tyne and delivered to the club in spring 1869. The club's first regatta was held in September 1869 and the course ran downstream from the Plantation to the newly constructed boathouse. In 1883, the boathouse was extended northwards by the addition of a new two-storey section and landing stage; original plans for this extension are signed 'Stevenson'; this is probably James Stevenson of Berwick.

SOURCES L Pearson, Pers. Comm. 17-05-2010 (Author of the forthcoming Played on Tyne and Wear) I Whitehead, The Sporting Tyne: A History of Professional Rowing (2002) Berwickshire Amateur Rowing Club: additions to Club House February 1893, original building plans LB.1/42, Berwick Archive http://www.berwick-amateur-rowing-club.co.uk/history.htm Accessed on 14 May 2010 http://www.bhfinder.com/Articles/Details/Rowing-An-Historical-Overview-of-the-First-Modern-Sport.html Accessed on 14 May 2010

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: This purpose-built amateur boathouse of 1869, extended in 1883 by James Stevenson of Berwick, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural: an attractive and largely intact club boathouse displaying the characteristic features of boat store, club house, balcony and viewing tower * Historical: as a good example of one of the many small public boat clubs established in England in the second half of the C19 as rowing emerged as a sport * Rarity: a rare example of a small purpose-built boathouse for a competitive team.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

507935

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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